Cellular communications systems typically provide interconnect and/or dispatch voice communication services. Interconnect voice communication services are those typically provided by most cellular carriers as circuit-switched communications. Dispatch communication services are commonly known as a “walkie-talkie” type of call, such as provided by Nextel Communications, Inc. and identified by the trade names Push-To-Talk (PTT) or Direct Connect. The popularity of dispatch calls is ever expanding and this increase in popularity has created a demand for more features to be associated with these types of calls.
Currently, presence information regarding individual subscribers to a dispatch network is not determined by the network, and thus, is not available for providing of such information regarding one subscriber to another party that may desire this information. Examples of presence information is whether or not the subscriber is registered in the network, involved in a dispatch call, and involved in a packet data session. As the subscriber base of the telecommunications network increases and as more and more features are requested by the subscribers of the network, it is desirable that this type of information be available for subscribers.
It is desirable to provide presence information of subscribers for any of a variety of reasons. One of these reasons may be that as more people become users of this increasingly popular dispatch service, these new subscribers may be familiar with having such information available in other applications and may expect that this information is made available for dispatch applications. For example, presence information is common in instant messaging applications and is used to inform other users of the status of a particular user, e.g., whether the user is on-line.
Additionally, dispatch communications are also becoming compatible with other communication technologies and applications that include presence information. It may be desirable to provide presence information for/to a dispatch user that is communicating with a party that is using one of these other technologies or applications. For example, a dispatch user on a dispatch network may be communicating with a party on a third party network/application with a presence information capability through an interface and may desire to provide presence information to that party and/or other parties on the third party network/application. This third party network/application may be an internet chatroom, a text messaging session, e.g., short messaging service (SMS), or a voice telephone call either to a handset or a desktop computer.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for providing subscriber presence information for a dispatch network subscriber.